Effects of brand relationship quality on responses to service failure of hotel consumers

Abstract

Relationship marketing, inspired by the metaphor of human relationship, is regarded as a new paradigm that can be traced back to the roots of the marketing phenomenon (Sheth & Parvatiyar, 1995). In the past decade, relationship marketing has been expended in the consumer setting with Fournier's (1998) conceptualization of the brand relationship quality (BRQ) framework. However, the suitability of metaphoric transfer of the human metaphor to the consumer brand context for all brands remains unclear. Empirical research on the influence of brand relationship quality on intentions and behaviors of consumers remains limited. To gain new insights in this important area, this study aims to examine the applicability of BRQ in hospitality context, and to investigate the effects of BRQ on the behavior of hotel consumers under the circumstance of service failures in high-class hotels. Specifically, it compares the differences of post-failure responses between high-BRQ and low-BRQ consumers, and examines the moderating or mitigating effect of BRQ on service failure. Based on a review of extant literature, a comprehensive conceptual model is proposed to present the relationships between brand relationship and post-service reactions of hotel consumers. Seven hypotheses derived from the conceptual framework are developed. This study adopts a quantitative approach. A questionnaire survey is the major source of data. Four hundred and twenty international and domestic hotel guests in six cities in China participated in the survey. The data analysis process is directed towards testing the hypotheses, and follows the principles and procedures of structural equation modeling (SEM). Results show that the concept of BRQ is applicable in the hospitality industry. All the BRQ dimensions are unique and distinct from one another; love/passion may play a special dominating effect among these dimensions. BRQ was found to be helpful in shielding a hotel organization from the negative effects of service failures. First, BRQ has direct influences on emotional responses of the hotel consumer. Nevertheless, hotel consumers' controllability attribution has dominating influences in this process. In this case, the buffering effect of BRQ may not be obvious. Second, notably, BRQ has a dominating effect on consumer’ future behavioral intentions. This finding highlights that high-BRQ consumers are very likely to have true relationships based on commitment, trust, and perceived relationship benefits. However, this finding may not be applicable when service failures are severe. The results of multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) show that high- and low-BRQ hotel consumers have different responses on emotions and behavioral intentions; however, the actual difference is not very large. This study contributes to our knowledge of BRQ applicability in the hospitality industry and the role of BRQ in hotel consumer marketing research. It is an attempt to examine whether the BRQ model has advantages of conceptual richness over extant loyalty notions compared with the traditional brand loyalty perspective. Moreover, this study aids in further understanding complex hotel consumer purchase behavior and in improving the measurement and tracking of brand loyalties in the marketplace. This study further aims to serve as reference for hotel organizations in deciding whether the quality of the consumer-brand relationship should be one of the hotel’s priority lines of action.